MONO NO AWARE
photo series | 2022
« I wear the veil of melancholy.
Not to protect me.
Not because sadness defines my life.
Rather, it is life itself.
It lets me see the reality behind the surreality of existence.
Through it I see the beauty of the moment inherent in all that lives and dies.
A tender touch, a deep love, always only a short moment
that makes the now become the past.
A future does not exist. »
MONO NO AWARE
means to recognise the fragile beauty in the fleetingness of life.
​
MONO NO AWARE
is a quiet sadness that is inherent in everything.
​
Every form of happiness,
if attainable at all,
is always already subject to transience.
​
MONO NO AWARE
is the art of dealing
with this fleetingness
and learning to enjoy
the moment of finite beauty.
​
It is a matter of accepting pain and loss and transforming them into appreciation and gratitude.
​
« One does not mourn the past, but comes to terms with it. One does not weep over the inevitable end, but sighs longingly but smiling, knowing that one has lived through the moment. »
photo series | 2023
